AICW Primary Route from VA to NC and Dismal Swamp Canal-Alternate AICW Reopens- Great Bridge Lock Returns to Normal Schedule After Damaged Swing Arm from Hurricane Irene

Great Bridge Lock Closed due to Damage from Hurricane Irene. Photo by Patrick Bloodgood.

Postings from
Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net

Statute Mile 11.5- After being on a restricted schedule due to damage from Hurricane Irene, Great Bridge Lock has returned to a normal schedule. Thus, the primary North Carolina – Virginia Cut branch of the AICW (also known as the Chesapeake – Albemarle Canal) is now fully useable by cruising craft, excepting that there may be some floating and semi-sunken debris courtesy of Hurricane Irene, to watch for and avoid! Happy days, now the cruising community has a clear path for the fall, 2011 southward migration!

Public Notice, US Army Corp of Engineers, Norfolk District
Repairs to Great Bridge Lock, damaged during Hurricane Irene, in Chesapeake, Virginia, have been completed. Lockings have returned to normal, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Great Bridge locks open on demand, but work in conjunction with the Great Bridge Bridge openings. Vessel operators may contact the Great Bridge lock at 757-547-3311 if additional locking information is required. Lock and bridge operators will monitor Channel 13.
　

Dismal Swamp Canal-Alternate AICW will Reopen September 7, 2011

We just heard from Captain Donna Stewart, director of the Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center, at 1:10 pm, 9/6/11. She reports that the US Army Corps of Engineers has just announced the Dismal Swamp Canal Alternate AICW route will reopen tomorrow morning, 9/07/11, AND the locks at both South Mills, NC and Deep Creek, VA will once again be operating on their normal, four times a day opening schedule (openings at 8:30 am, 11:00 am, 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm).
As you may remember, locking hours were initially cut back on the Dismal earlier in the summer, due to drought conditions, and then the canal was closed entirely due to a forest/swamp fire. Well, the fire is all but out, and there is now plenty of water in the canal, both courtesy of Hurricane Irene. I guess something good came out of this great storm after all.
Donna assures me that the Corps boats have carefully checked the canal and Turners Cut for flotsam and jetsam. So, cruising craft should now be able to run the Dismal with no more than the usual cautions of going slowly so as not to stir up bottom debris.
What GREAT timing! Now, southbound AICW cruisers this fall have a choice of whether to take the faster North Carolina – Virginia Cut (also known as the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal) or the historic and ecologically interesting Dismal Swamp route. Happy cruising to one and all, whichever passage you choose!

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